Politicians Give Politicians a Bad Name

by Timb Mantegna

A-    What happened with that Senate ethics thing?

B-    They censured Currie.

A-    I thought it was Garagiola.

B-    No, he was tax evasion.

A-    No, tax evasion was the Anne Arundel County Councilman.

B-    The Anne Arundel County guy was County Exec.

A-    No, the exec was a sex scandal.

B-    FIRST BASE.

After an impromptu Abbott and Costello bit with a friend, I realized that the scandals were piling up faster than the new taxes, and withouth a scandal scorecard of sorts I would never be able to keep up. So consider this your breach-of-public-trust box score for the past four months:

Ulysses Currie

Position: State Senator, Prince George’s County (D)

Allegation: Senator Currie failed to “disclose $250,000 of income from Shoppers Food Warehouse on his financial disclosure forms,” while attempting to use his position to get Shoppers preferential treatment from the state. 

When: Censured February 17

Outcome: Stepped down as Chairman of Budget and Taxation Committee, and censured by the Senate. Will be in office at least two more years.

Rob Garagiola

Position: State Senator, Montgomery County (D)

Allegation: On his state ethics forms, Senator Garagiola did not “disclose income as a lobbyist from 2001 to 2003…[and] income from another law firm from 2003 to 2008.” 

When: Story broke February 23

Outcome: Garagiola confirmed the omission claiming he misunderstood the definition of “and.” No action taken by Senate. Will be in office at least two more years and currently running for Congress.

John Leopold 

Position: Anne Arundel County Executive (R)

Allegation: “Forced on-duty police officers to deliver campaign lawn signs, aid and abet his sexual conquests, and even empty his urinary catheter bag.” The ACLU is persuing allegations that Leopold used his county “security detail to investigate political opponents.”

When: Indicted March 2

Outcome: Leopold has been charged with four counts of misconduct in office and a count of fraudulent misappropriation by a fiduciary. Trial date has not been set.

Richard Stewart

Position: One of five on Governor’s Redistricting Advisory Committee, Member of Maryland Stadium Authority

Allegation: “did not collect, truthfully account for and pay nearly $4 million in taxes from 2003 to 2008."

When: Story broke December 2011

Outcome: Stewart pleaded guilty and sentencing is in late April. Many politicians that received campaign contributions from Stewart returned the money or gave it to charity.

Tiffany Alston

Position: Delegate, Prince George’s County (D)

Allegation: Charged with “one count each of felony and misdemeanor theft, misappropriation by a fiduciary and two election law offenses” for using campaign funds for her wedding and salary of a law firm employee, and putting a law firm employee on the state payroll. 

When: Second indictment on December 15, same-sex marriage vote February 17

Outcome: Alston claimed that the indictments were backlash for withdrawing support for the same-sex marriage bill last year. She voted for it this year, claiming she was against it but wanted the voters to decide, leading to rumor of a backroom deal exchanging her vote for an end to the indictments.

Daryl Jones

Position: Anne Arundel County Councilman (D)

Allegation: “Failed to file dozens of personal and business tax returns over a six-year period."

When: Began prison term January 23, County Council kerfuffle to replace him ongoing

Outcome: Jones is currently serving five months in prison. After over 100 rounds of voting, the County Council has still yet to replace the Councilman from District 1. And now that they have to handle the fallout of Leopold’s indictment, it has now become even more complicated. 

       : allegedly (while I believe I got everything accurate, it’s best just to throw that in anyway).

An important side-note about indictment, as in the cases of Leopold and Alston. Indictments are simply the prosecutor telling a jury why the person should be charged, and then the jury says, yes, they should be tried for whatever the prosecutor said. There is no right to legal defense in an indictment, that is what the trial is for. They are then formally charged, but in no way guilty until convicted (or accept a bargain). To move papers, the media likes to play indictments as if they were convictions (think Duke Lacrosse). Unfortunately, this trend often leads people to believe if someone is indicted, they must have done it. And, if Delegate Alston was indicted for political reasons, then that case becomes a scandal for an entirely different reason.

How can anyone expect people to trust politicians? Six scandals either broke or continue to disrupt the political landscape in the past four months, and I didn’t bother including the robocall heard round the world, or Jack Johnson’s “wide-ranging pattern of corruption that permeated virtually every level of county government from health to housing and law enforcement to liquor laws,” both holdovers from 2010 that have only been resolved in the past 4 months. Sadly, this is not even a particularly abnormal year.

I often hear people explain why they are cynical with something along the lines of “I wasn’t born yesterday.” But even if you were born yesterday, and somehow became literate and mentally competent by today, you would still have witnessed this parade of flagrant violations of public trust. And as much as the media sensationalizes this stuff, they cannot be blamed for an individual evading taxes, or hiding lobbying ties, or failing to disclose major conflicts of interest.

Everyone knows this corruption is the elephant in the room. Everyone talks about this elephant in the room (“the odor of dishonesty and sleaze have done more than anything else to impede economic development in Prince George’s,” said current County Exec Baker). But unlike the elephants in Annapolis, the major power brokers don’t seem too concerned about kicking this one out.

It is even more troubling that these are only the scandals that have come to light. In this state, there is always one more just over the horizon.

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Also worth reading: Commentary: Currie verdict shows we reporters are wasting our time